Is it immoral to be a serial returner? YES

Top women writers lock horns on life’s modern dilemmas

Are you one of life’s serial returners? one of those people who buy an outfit with absolutely no intention of keeping it? Instead, you’ll wear it once and send it back knowing you’ll get a refund?

Well, you are contributing to fast fashion by exploiting a system that is holding our planet to ransom.

You might be one of those shoppers telling themselves they’re not harming anyone, but this isn’t the case.

These garments will almost certainly have been made by someone in the Third World for very little pay, using dyes that pollute rivers and create emissions which are heating the planet and causing sea levels to rise. Climate experts estimate it takes around 15 bathloads of water to produce a single T-shirt. Add the high carbon footprint of transport, and the impact on our planet is obvious.

If you wear an item — even for only a few hours — before returning it, you often make it unsaleable by leaving tell-tale signs, such as make-up around the collar and sweat marks. These clothes are shredded or burned, then dumped in landfill.

And, yes, there is the impact on retailers, too, (many of whom are small businesses) who lose around £1.5 billion a year.

Influencers must take responsibility for ‘wardrobing’ — wearing outfits once for an Instagram post, then returning them. Giving followers the impression they wear new clothes every day glamorises mindless consumption.

Attaching red, highly visible smart tags (above) to garments is one way to discourage this practice. You can’t wear clothes with them on and once you remove the tag, you can’t return the item.

Another way is thinking about the environmental consequences and taking responsibility for our choices.

Wearing new clothes every day glamorises mindless consumption